9 Year Old Artists

Our final unit of the year is How We Express Ourselves, and we're studying how we express our religious beliefs through the arts.  We divided into five specialist groups, and each group focused on one specific art form.  The kids could choose between visual arts, dance, drama, song writing/poetry, or multi-media (I was multi-media).  We've spent the last six weeks or so exploring how other artists have used these means to express their beliefs as well as expressing our own spiritual beliefs.  The students all work on their own work of art, but we also have had to prepare for junior school assembly.  Over the year, SPH gives each grade a chance to show off to the rest of junior school what they've been learning, and this unit is our unit.  And our unit is perfect for creating a performance.

Each group designed a project to include in the assembly and then we put them all together for a kick-butt assembly centered around the new creation we receive through Christ. As I saw other groups preparing for their project, and as I worked with my group, I was brought to tears watching the kids interact with this very important message.  It's also an awesome chance to share with the parents the greater purpose of our teaching the children, not just the math and reading, but how we are all created a new through Christ's grace.

My multi-media created a video here.  I was so pleased with how it turned out! My group worked so hard to get the pictures and audio looking and sounding good, and then I put it in the video.  They all can make their own videos now, too, since teaching movie-making was one of our projects for this unit.

And here are a few shots from assembly.  Some are from practice right before, since I was busy running the powerpoint, but Kimberly took a few shots for me during the actual assembly.

"Everywhere I look, I see Your face!"

"Your love has captured me"

"Oh my, God! This love, how can it be?"

Getting the lapels. Best day ever.

Trying not to be too excited.

Our MCs who did a fabulous job!

Getting to wear makeup for the dance... we should do assembly every day!

I just love their faces



Ibu Hastin with visual arts



Kimberly with drama

Me with multi-media



Rod with poetry/song writing



Adel and Anita with dance

It was a fabulous time.  Planning, practicing, creating, and finally performing.  I think the kids really were able to get a good chance at expressing what they believe through these art forms.  I am so so so proud of them.  It was one of those moments I didn't want to end, because I knew they had put so much work into it and it was going so perfectly. Hopefully, a greater purpose was served, and parents were able to hear the gospel presented through the artwork of their children.